


Unexpected Results

by flintxwood



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 20:22:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9288200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flintxwood/pseuds/flintxwood
Summary: Pencils, a football pitch, and Seamus's soap. That's what Amortentia smelt like to Dean.





	

Having a girlfriend was kind of… weird, Dean had to admit. He did really like Ginny and snogging her was quite fun but it definitely brought a weird rift in his life. It’s like he had a whole new person to really think about and to prioritise. The only other person that came close to that who wasn’t family was Seamus. 

Seamus had been acting weird lately. If Dean came into the common room and he was with Ginny Seamus would retreat upstairs. If they were studying together in the library and Ginny came to sit with them he’d make some sort of excuse and leave. Dean hadn’t thought too much of it until he and Ginny came into the common room together and while Seamus was reading and when they sat on the couch and cuddled Seamus slammed his book shut and stormed upstairs. It wasn’t particularly loud and he didn’t draw attention to himself but Seamus always had Dean’s attention. 

Dean had concluded that he was just annoyed by the amount of time he’d been spending with Ginny.

“So what do you think of Slughorn?” Seamus asked as they walked to potions.

“Already better than Snape, honestly,” Dean replied. “It’s close to perfect, Snape just needs to be hit with the DADA curse and then we’ll be done with him for good.”

Seamus laughed. “I never knew you had such a dark side,” he grinned at him. “Hopefully Ginny knows.”

Dean poked his hip playfully and Seamus squealed, cover the spot on his hip as he flinched. “You were thinking it too, don’t lie.”

Seamus smiled at him. “You’d never get me to admit to it.”

They got to potions class and Slughorn’s positive personality put him far ahead of Snape. He introduced the class, stating they were learning about Amortentia, which was apparently the most powerful love potion. He could kind of get its scent, and it was the most unexpected smell. The wood pencils he’d use for art, the football pitch he’d play on with his childhood friends, and…

His eyebrows drew together. He could smell the soap Seamus used, the scent he always had. Why on earth would he smell that?

Hermione, being the genius she was, explained the love potion. When she said “it smells like the things a person loves” he stared at the cauldron the potion sat in. That’s weird. He loved art and football but he didn’t love the scent of Seamus’s soap. It was a nice scent an all and he always associated it with Seamus, but that’s all it was. It was the smell of Seamus, that’s it. He wasn’t even totally sure what the smell was. It was Seamus, why would he love that-

Oh. He realised. Oh fuck. 

Seamus nudged him. “What do you smell?” he whispered. “I smell the country side, smoke, and firewhisky.”

Dean smiled. That sounded exactly like him. “My art supplies, a football pitch back home, and-“ he hesitated and it showed in his voice. “And that’s it.”

Slughorn cleared his throat and the two boys turned their attention back to him. 

…

Seamus did that thing again. He went straight upstairs when he came into the common room with Ginny, Seamus left his game of exploding snap with Ron. Ron looked as confused as he did but shrugged and cleaned up the game. 

When they were in class that day, the smell of his soap was stuck in his nose. He did really like that smell. Whenever Seamus was near him it hit him hard. It used to be a nice, recognisable background thing. Now all he could think whenever Seamus was close to him was how much he liked that smell and he was brought back to potions class. 

Did he love Seamus? Amortentia wasn’t even technically a love potion, it just led to infatuation. But he doubted if you smelt a person it was platonic love that made you smell them. He’d thought of asking Slugborn in class but he didn’t want to raise suspicion, especially from Seamus.

Ginny’s hair smelt nice and flowery, why didn’t he smell that? He knew he didn’t love Ginny but smelling her would’ve made a lot more sense than smelling Seamus of all people. Seamus was his closest friend in the world, they clung together immediately after they got sorted. They’d been inseparable ever since. Seamus even convinced his mum to let him come to the Quidditch world cup in 1994. He remembered talking excitedly before sleeping until the Death Eaters showed up. They were connected to each other; in different ways he was connected to Ginny. 

What if his love for him did go beyond friendship? What would he do then? He was with Ginny, was he meant to break up with her because he could smell Seamus’s soap in a love potion? 

“Dean, are you okay?” Ginny asked, nudging him out of his thoughts. 

“Um, yeah,” he replied hastily. 

He was not in love with Seamus. 

…

“Why does Snape always have to assign so much fuckin’ homework,” Seamus muttered, sitting across from Dean in the library. 

Dean smiled at him. “Some things never change, I guess.”

He watched Seamus as he worked. He’d changed a lot over the past five years. His baby face was gone but he was still the same in some respects. His eyes were still as blue, his sandy hair still fell into his face in a way that tempted Dean to brush it away, he still stuck out his tongue when he concentrated, he still had so many freckles he’d felt so tempted to kiss…

He shook his head. They were just freckles; he didn’t need to think about kissing them. 

He distracted himself but sketching. His homework was mostly finished so he didn’t mind going off topic a little. He had the habit of sketching things that were on his mind so he started to sketch Seamus. Seamus seemed to be focussing on his work so it was the perfect pose for a quick sketch. 

“Okay, I think I’m done,” Seamus said and looked up as Dean finished his sketch. “What’re you doing?”

“Got bored,” Dean said showing Seamus the sketch. 

Seamus smiled. “Oh, so that’s what you do when I’m not looking.” There was a spark in his eye, the spark that was always there when he was happy. Dean loved that spark, it was something that reminded him so much of Seamus. 

“It was just a quick sketch,” Dean replied. He was pretty proud of it though, his tried focussing on adding texture to Seamus’s hair and dotting on his freckles. He’d like to see what he could do if he had time to do a real portrait. 

“Better than anything I could do,” Seamus smiled. Dean’s stomach fluttered at that. His stomach never fluttered like this with Ginny. 

The smell of Seamus’s soap burnt his nose. 

“Hey guys,” a voice cut into his thoughts. The smile on Seamus’s face dropped and his eyes drifted somewhere behind Dean. Dean glanced over his shoulder to see Ginny coming to their table. She sat next to Dean and pecked his cheek. Dean glanced over at Seamus and the spark that was in his eye had extinguished. He looked… disappointed. 

“I… I uh should get back to the common room,” he mumbled and stood up, cleaning up his things. 

“You can stay,” Ginny assured.

“Not, it’s fine.” He was avoiding Dean’s gaze and quickly left the library. 

“Uh, I should go see if he’s okay,” Dean said standing up.

Ginny nodded. “I have homework to do anyway.”

He quickly walked out of the library and he saw Seamus walking quickly down the mostly empty corridor. 

“Seamus!” he called, running after him. Seamus seemed to pick up speed, like he was trying to get away from him. “Seamus!” he called again. He was taller than Seamus so he caught up to him soon enough. He caught his wrist gently. Seamus stopped trying to get away, but he didn’t turn to face Dean.

“Seamus, what’s wrong? Why did you just suddenly leave?” he asked gently. 

Usually, Seamus would probably make up another excuse like he’d been doing lately. He sighed, and he turned to face Dean and he surprised to see ears were prickling his eyes. “The country side, smoke, firewhisky, and your shampoo.”

Dean looked at him confused. “What?”

Seamus took a deep breath. “That’s everything I smelt in the Amortentia. The country side; home. Smoke; I like blowing shit up obviously. Firewhisky; sounds stereotypically Irish but it reminds me of me family. And your shampoo; you, you fucking idiot. But I didn’t need a love potion to tell me that.”

Dean stared at him. Seamus… loved him. And he knew without the Amortentia. That made him wonder how long Seamus had been keeping it from him. 

“Shay-“

“Dean, I don’t need you to tell me you don’t feel the same way, you have Ginny.” Before he could get another word in, Seamus stormed off down the corridor.

…

He had to break up with Ginny. He just had to. That stupid potion made both of them confront this. He’d never thought too much about how he felt about Seamus. Surly everyone got butterflies around their best friend. But no, he was in love with him. It was so fucked up it took a fucking love potion to realise it. 

“Are you listening?” Ginny asked, grabbing his attention as they walked through the corridor. He glanced at her. 

“Sorry,” he said. “A lot on my mind.”

“Right…” she said. “Was Seamus okay?”

He pressed his lips together. “He’s fine,” he lied. “Hey Ginny? I uh… I think…”

“We should break up?” she finished, raising a brow. “Yeah, I think so too.”

He let out a sigh of relief. “Really? I wasn’t sure how to really say it…”

Ginny shrugged. “We’re not right together. I don’t think I’ll ever take Seamus’s place in your heart.”

He stopped in his tracks, staring at Ginny. She looked back at him and smiled. “I’ll see you around, okay? I’ll make sure Ron doesn’t kill you.”

He nodded slowly and she walked down the corridor, leaving him pretty baffled. 

That girl was definitely something. 

…

“Have you seen Seamus?” he asked Neville who was working on his homework. Judging by the smile on his face it was likely Herbology. 

“He went to the dormitories,” he replied. 

He nodded and headed upstairs, his heart racing. Seamus was either going to kick him out or not. Maybe he would hear him out. Please to god let Seamus hear him out.

He got to the dorm and Seamus was the only one in there. He was laid in his bed, staring up at the ceiling.

He took a deep breath. “My art pencils, a football pitch back home, and your soap.”

Seamus looked up at him, thankfully not looking at him angry. He looked confused. “What?”

He took a deep breath. “That’s what Amortentia smells like for me. My art pencils; art itself. The football pitch back home; obviously football but it was also where I played with my friends. Your soap… you.”

Seamus sat up and crossed his legs. “What about-“

“I broke up with Ginny.”

“Oh.”

“I thought it was normal to get butterflies around your best friend.”

Seamus laughed softly and shook his head. “You’re so clueless, you know that?”

Dean laughed. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

“So you love me, huh?” Seamus asked, cocking his head to the side.

Dean laughed and smiled, walking over to Seamus and sitting next to him. “You love me too, though.”

Seamus smiled. “Yeah but I didn’t need Amortentia to tell me that.”

“Can you just shut up so I can kiss you?”

Seamus’s smile grew and wrapped his arms around Dean’s neck. “Thought you were never gonna ask.”

Okay, maybe he was slightly grateful the love potion.


End file.
